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Ramb was the Jevil/Spamton of TV World

- Jevil concluded that if nothing was real, he could do anything without consequence.

- Spamton concluded that if nothing was real, he needed to make himself real.

- Ramb concluded that if nothing was real, the best he could do was offer "freedom" to someone who IS real. (Us)

While he talks to Kris, it's clear how much of his dialogue is aimed at us. He talks about games, about being railroaded by developers and morality, and how true freedom can only come from playing the game how YOU want to. If you're on the weird route, he'll even say he's indulging "the part of you that enjoyed yesterday," because he knows if the player sought that path out and is sticking to it, they must be at-least partially enjoying it.

He never references the morality of our actions, because he believes that they don't matter. It's just a game, right? All that matters is that the player enjoys themselves. This is also meant to mirror Ralsei's perspective pushed to its logical extreme. Ramb exists entirely to serve the player, regardless of their actions, even as he gradually petrifies. One of his last lines of dialogue references how Kris is talking to an electrical outlet, reminding us that he isn't real and doesn't matter. He's fully succumbed to the same nihilism that haunts Ralsei.

(And of course, he also mirrors Jevil and Spamton in that he's another peculiar little guy with a unique way of talking. If he'd had a boss fight, he would've been the next Tumblr Sexyman for sure.)

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🐝🐝🐝CAINE'S BEE-SONA! 🐝🐝🐝

LOOK HOW HARD HE TRIED!

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So after TADC's 5th episode, a lot of little details about the circumstances of the Circus have been revealed:

1. C&A has moved or been fully shut down for long enough that the building housing the Circus has been considered abandoned. For that to happen, you'd need a good 10 years of neglect, I'd say.

2. Pomni and Zooble both got trapped while exploring the abandoned C&A building. (Zooble is the second-newest, according to Gooseworx)

3. It's modern day out there, with Youtube and whatnot. Remembering that the Digital Circus is a late-90s era PC game, that means Kinger has probably been trapped in the Circus for around 25 years. For perspective, he's been in there for longer than Gangle, Jax, and Zooble have been ALIVE. No WONDER he's crazy!

4. This is further emphasized by the fact that nobody else knew about Kinger's wife. For that to happen, you'd need two degrees of separation from when she abstracted: both the people that knew her AND the people that knew OF her are gone. How many abstracted people have been entirely forgotten? How many people has Kinger seen lose themselves?

5. Caine's general looniness may not JUST be the result of him running non-stop for so long. The physical hardware hosting the Circus is likely starting to degrade after so much time. Eventually it WILL give out entirely, assuming it isn't being maintained. The fact that it's still receiving electricity despite the building supposedly being "abandoned" DOES imply someone is trying to maintain the circus, though!

6. If C&A is abandoned then nobody is maintaining the characters' physical bodies. The fact that nobody's died implies their consciousnesses are fully severed from their bodies. This also means that they probably CAN'T escape from the Circus, because they have no bodies to return to.

7. HOWEVER the fact that Pomni didn't mention seeing any decaying bodies when finding the headset implies they're either being moved, or there are many different headset that all lead to the Circus. Either way, it feels like someone on the outside is working to maintain the Circus's existence for some reason...

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That's definitely what we8re supposed to infer, since Pomni said it when asked how she ended up in the Circus. I also agree that that's likely how Zooble got there too, since they were the second-most recent addition to the cast, according to Gooseworx.

This of course has some big implications, and creates some even bigger questions!

How long has the building been closed? Why is it still receiving power? How long until the lack of maintenance degrades the hardware of the computer they're all trapped in?

Hey wait a minute. Didn't Pomni say she recorded herself exploring abandoned buildings and didn't she find the digital circus headset in a Caine and Abel company building? So was her transfer into the digital circus recorded? Is there a camera in the building with evidence of the process?

Or if she live streamed to YouTube her exploration. Did people witness it? Also, Zooble said they explored abandon buildings too. Did they get transferred in the same way?

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Donkey Kong Timeline Theory

So Bananza has thrown a real monkey wrench into the Kong/Mario timeline, however considering the way the game pays homage to every aspect of DK's history, I don't think Nintendo is breaking everything without some idea of how the pieces will fit back together. Going off the pre-release information we have, I've cobbled together a two-part theory of how events play out whithin this new continuity:

1. Jumpman and OG Pauline are Mario's (or Mayor Pauline's) mother and father. This is the only explanation I can think of for why Cranky mentions having an overalls-clad rival in Bananza while Pauline is as young as she is. It actually solves the old problem of Cranky being so old despite Mario still being in his 20s. It also conveniently saves Mario from being the whip-wielding villain of DK Junior and cleans up the old Pauline/Peach love interest swap.

2. Mario DOES still save Mayor Pauline from a "Donkey Kong" as referenced in Odyssey... however this was Donkey Kong JUNIOR, not Cranky or modern DK. Junior was perpetuating his father's feud, and we see his battle with Mario in Donkey Kong '94 for the Gameboy. (Hence why it stars Mario and Mayor Pauline instead of Jumpman and OG Pauline.)

This new timeline helps explain why Pauline dedicated so much of New Donk City to the Kongs, since in the old timeline her only experiences with Kongs be negative. It makes much more sense if all the street names were honouring the events of Bananza, and the Jump Up Superstar finale was celebrating Mario defeating one bad Kong.

Of course there are plenty of little details that contradict this theory. I have no explanation for why there's another DK Junior in DK '94, or how modern DK is now seemingly older than Mario despite him showing up as a baby alongside baby Mario in Yoshi's Island DS. Some things just aren't going to fit, and that's ok!

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Have you ever experience a real-life Monkey's Paw moment?

I encountered one last year. I had a cough/minor fever that wasn't going away. Figured it was light pneumonia, and went to Emergency to get some antibiotics prescribed (hooray for Canada's free healthcare!)

I knew I wouldn't be high on their priority list, so I downloaded some stuff to watch while I waited, including the latest episode of Arcane S2. It ended on a big cliffhanger, and as many of us do, I wished desperately I could just jump forward in time to when the next episode had released.

I then awoke a week later in Cardiac Intensive Care with a dozen tubes attached to my body and no memory of how I got there. Apparently a fluke reaction with the fever had inflamed my heart, lungs, and kidneys all at once to a point where they'd started to shut down.

Still, I got my wish! A week had passed and the next episode was out! A shame I was still too high to retain like any of what I watched.

Damn you, Monkey's Paw!

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Just stumbled on to this comic, and am immediately quite interested! It's a tale following the (now grown-up) boy that stabbed Old Nick back in that first TF2 Smissmas comic, and Olivia Mann. Delightfully creative stuff!

merry crisis and happy holidays boils and ghouls! i have once again crawled fourth from my deep reclusive hermit hide to lay the second chapter of This isn't Over Jack at your feet (please read it... plblese....)

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While I'm waiting to have less work and go to read the Asterix comic again in my local library, I'm rewatching all the animated films, and I find this extract from Asterix in Britain both very cute and very funny.

I find it very cute because the first thing drunk Obelix thinks about is if Asterix still likes him and that his friend reassures him in a gentler way than in the original comic.

And what makes me laugh every single time is Asterix's reaction when Obelix runs towards the Roman patrol.

Like this man is so done

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Does anyone else get lesbian vibes from the 1970s commercial??

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Quick Invincible Season 3 Parallels Analysis

To me, Season 3 was all about forcing Mark (and the audience) to understand how Nolan became who he is through the parallels of Immortal, Conquest, Oliver, and Invincible.

Immortal exists as a contrast to Nolan. Despite living for hundreds of thousands of years, Immortal remained a hero because he lived amongst humanity as a regular person. He only becomes a monster once he is elevated ABOVE humanity, and shackled with the responsibility governing them. This is an intentional reversal of Nolan's arc, who started off as a detached monster but found goodness when he was forced to live amongst humanity as a regular person.

Conquest represents what Nolan could have become had he remained detached. A mindless force of violence, extraordinarily lonely yet too far gone to find redemption. All he can do is blindly go through the motions, his only connection with others being brief moments of confession before he kills them.

Oliver represents what Nolan started as, and how without guidance he became a monster. Oliver is a sweet kid whose accelerated growth and sheltered upbringing threatened to detach him from humanity. He couldn't understand why killing "bad guys" was wrong because of his limited connection to others. It's made clear that without Mark and Debbie to help him, he would have developed a simplistic and tyrannical perspective of the world.

Finally, Mark reflects the best and worst parts of his father. There's his "might-makes-right" clash with Cecil, his paternal role to Oliver even as they fight over the same issues of condemnation vs redemption that made him threaten Cecil, Powerplex reminding him of the weight of his responsibilities and if he deserves to live a normal life, the Invincible war showing him both how dangerous and frightening his power is to others, and finally Conquest forcing him to recognize his true capacity for violence.

The underlining theme within all this is how our connections to others keeps us grounded, and that the long-term impacts of isolation, responsibility, and power eventually corrupt us all.

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Why Shy, Guy?

I was watching Mario Kart World demo footage, and I really enjoyed how all the various Mario critters were used as interchangeable NPCs. You've got yoshis, shy-guys, toads and koopas all co-existing together. It underlines how the baddies you encounter in most games are just hired soldiers, and most of their species are peaceful civilians. Which of COURSE made contemplate how these various species fit into a mixed society. Particularly Shy-Guys! Consider:

1. Shy-guys everywhere and without exception keep themselves completely covered, meaning their choice of garb goes beyond personal or cultural.

2. No shy-guy has ever (intentionally) let someone see what's underneath those clothes.

3. In an older game Luigi glimpses what's under a friendly shy-guy's mask, and IMMEDIATELY enters fight-or-flight. He recoils in horror, stumbles out of the shy-guy's way like he's afraid to even be near the thing, and finally collapses like his legs can't handle the shock of what he's just witnessed.

4. The momentarily unmasked shy-guy doesn't seem to care? They just put the mask back on and continue merrily skipping along.

I'm not here to theorize what the little goobers actually ARE, because it's a Schrödinger's Cat situation. There is no cannon answer, thus all answers are equally correct and incorrect. I'm far more interested in how all this impacts their social interactions, WHY they collectively wear their masks, and if/when they ever remove them.

The Luigi scene seems to imply they wear what they do more-so for other people than for themselves. I'm sure plenty of shy-guys WOULD be embarrassed by letting their mask slip, but it's not like full-blown cultural taboo for them. The shy-guy that flashes Luigi clearly is unbothered by his reaction, which implies they're either used to it, or they don't particularly care what Luigi thinks of them.

Simultaneously, the fact that ALL shy-guys hide themselves tells us that whatever's under there is SO objectively frightful and upsetting, not a single member of the species questions the need to cover it, even amongst their own kind. The masks are just a fact of life for them, like how we all wear clothes. So in what context DO they remove them? Do they do it when in private? Would they do it for a close friend/lover if requested, or would they fear how it influenced that loved one's perception of them? Is it considered a social taboo to ask a shy-guy what's under the mask?

Like for Mario's world at large the information MUST be accessible. Anyone curious could presumably find a description in a book somewhere. I presume therefore if you had a shy-guy buddy, you'd have some vague understanding of what they actually looked like, and it's just wordlessly accepted that actually SEEING it would just be an unpleasant experience for everyone involved. The shy-guys don't mind covering themselves, but also aren't inherently ashamed (or proud) of their true appearances. It seems like most don't particularly care either way.

I bet you that shy-guys that grow up in mixed societies ARE generally more likely to be embarrassed about how they look though, because it'd be this "othering" factor. Shy-guys don't seem to instinctively hold any stock in one's physical appearance, but when surrounded by people that DO, it'd rub off on you. I also guarantee shy-guy fashion is a BIG deal in such places, as that's your primary method of self-expression. Instead of getting a new haircut, you get a new hood. Figuring out how to look stylish while maintaining the functionality of your full-body covering sounds like one of those restrictions that breeds creativity.

I bet there's a running stereotype that all the best tailors and fashion designers are shy-guys, like how in real life all the best fashion is supposedly from Italy and France. They have a natural monopoly because clothing is such a big part of their lives and culture.

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So I just gave Nintendo Today a try, and IMMEDIATELY remembered just how terrible Nintendo is at creating anything besides video games. Honestly, it's almost charming. Look at their terrible video player!

It's a horizontal video locked into a vertical format in a software that can't adjust itself to different screen sizes. Some poor artists and designers clearly put a lot of effort into making the app visually appealing with lots of themes, but it's all running on 15-year-old IOS software.

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Which mythical monsters feel more like victims if you tell the story from their perspective?

This is easy for monsters like Medusa or Arachne who were unjustly cursed, but what about someone like the cyclops Polyphemus?

Imagine you're a humble shepherd, come home with your sheep from another day tending the flock, only to find a group of small sailors have broken in, eaten all your food, drank your best booze, and passed out.

With no dinner left you eat some of the thieves, because fair's fair. Then their captain wakes up, and since your mother taught you to be a gracious host, you introduce yourself and have an affable conversation with the guy. He tells you his name is "Nobody," and you politely inform Nobody that you will still have to eat him and the rest of his crew, because if you burglarize a cyclops's home, you get ate. It's nothing personal, those are just the rules.

Then Nobody takes advantage of your hospitality, gets you drunk, and stabs your eye out.

You scream. Your neighbours call to ask if everything's ok. You cry that "Nobody" is attacking you, and you're too delirious from pain and horror to understand why they don't come running. You realize these maniacs could hurt your beloved sheep next, so you fumble your way to the door and start herding them outside. You try to feel each sheep as it passes in hopes of catching your assailant before he can escape, but it's no use. You can only listen to Nobody's taunts as he sails away, announcing his real name was Odysseus all along,

Blinded, robbed, and seemingly abandoned by your friends in your time of need, all you can do is beg your father Poseidon for some form of justice to reach this monstrous "Odysseus."

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Idea: Bowser sees himself as the beauty to Peach's beast

This official promo implied Bowser likes Peach more as an elephant... which makes sense when you stop to think. She's probably a lot closer to ideal koopa beauty standards shaped like that, as while there aren't many female koopas in the Mario series, the few we have look like this:

By koopa body standards, Peach is hideously thin and lanky while Bowser is drop-dead gorgeous. He loves her for her personality, not appearance. (Bonus thoughts below)

Bonus Thoughts:

- Wendy O Koopa's painfully girly accessories can be explained as her trying to emulate Peach's fashion to better curry favour with her adoptive father/boss. (I remember reading somewhere that the koopalings are competitive about that, which is why they rarely work together.)

- Bowser never had a maternal figure in his life and has stated he doesn't want his son to grow up the same way. Peach's primary job is to aid an entire species of helpless mushroom-children, so she IS uniquely qualified for a motherly role.

- Boswer puts on a bully persona, but the way he treats his son (and adopted kids/minions) suggests this is mostly an act. Mario Odyssey's depiction of Bowser's ancestral home displayed a lineage of warlords, so that's just what's expected of him. (Tradition is harder to escape when your ancestors can literally return from the dead as skeletal monsters.)

- As an orphan warlord, Bowser was never taught how to express romantic feelings outside of conquest. He thinks he's being romantic with his grand displays of power and commitment, and perceives Mario as doing the same thing when the Italian rescues Peach.

- The fact that Bowser is looking outside his own species for love has interesting implications. It's likely Koopas culturally aren't as nurturing or emotionally open as Bowser wants/is deep down. That, or he wants someone that doesn't treat him (or his son) as a superior.

- Either way, Peach's freedom from koopa societal expectations makes her alluringly rebellious in Bowser's eyes. She expresses herself in ways he cannot, but secretly wishes to. Like a reverse "good girl meets bad boy" dynamic.

- Peach was probably one of the first non-koopa women Bowser met (when he invaded) and was caught off guard by the unapologetic care she showed for her subjects (willingly surrendering herself to ensure their safety). She both metaphorically and literally lacked the prickly shell he was used to dealing with.

- All these arguments also apply to Luigi.

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Canadian here. Our annual healthcare cost is somewhere around $36.2 Billion USD. To quote our government's website:

"This year alone, provinces and territories are receiving $52.1 billion from the federal government through the CHT, the largest amount in history."

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TF2 Classic got a major update!

In case you weren't aware, TF2 Classic is a fantastic back-to-basics reimagining of Team Fortress 2. Its weapons are more interesting, its gameplay more balanced, its visuals more polished, and its artstyle more coherent.

It's basically Team Fortress 3, and absolutely worth playing!

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